MAC Toledo Ombre Blush in Ripe Peach: review, photos, swatches

Friday, February 13, 2015

I hadn't purchased a limited edition product from MAC in ages - I feel overwhelmed by the excessive number of seasonal collections they release, almost every week it seems! When I saw pictures of the Toledo collection, however, I knew I had to get the Ombre Blush in Ripe Peach: it's just too beautiful!

The limited edition compact is both pretty and disappointing. It's a white plastic square decorated with black and red sketches of faces, very artsy. However, there is no mirror, and you have to rely on the magnetic closure as there is no clasp to maintain it closed. I wouldn't carry it around in my purse.

The blush itself is a stunning gradient of light peachy orange and pinkish coral. It evokes a beautiful sunset over the Pacific. In direct sunlight, you can see fine golden shimmer. The peach shade seems a little more shimmery than the coral.

It's pretty, but damn, it's HARD. As in hard as a rock. The surface is smooth and doesn't feel dry, almost like rubbery plastic. But you seriously need a hammer to make a dent in this thing. Swatching proved frustrating, in fact almost impossible. I rubbed, scrubbed, twirled my finger on the compact for minutes on end to make these weak silly looking swatches.

I had never experienced such a hard powder product before. I feel like the guy in charge of pressing compact powders that day took his job a little too seriously!! This is so densely compacted that it's very, very difficult to dislodge any powder. I wonder if MAC accidentally invented a process to turn powder pigments into erosion-resistant rock, because that's exactly what this product feels to the touch. I think it could go through a hurricane unaffected... Once I was able to get a liiittle bit of product out of the compact, I realized that it was very sheer. The coral side is particularly weakly pigmented, so the general color that painfully comes out of this blush is a very orangey peach. The rock-hard texture and lack of pigment mean that applying it to the face is a quite a bit of work - although it's not as impossible as I thought after swatching. I tried with various brushes, and I found that firm and dense ones were best at picking up some color. I "stab" the blush with the brush hair and them swirl it around while applying a lot of pressure to get some product on it, then transfer to the cheeks. I have to do that 3 or 4 times for a visible result on my face.

And then... it's really beautiful. On my cheeks, it's an incredibly flattering warm peach with a glowy finish. The gold shimmer is subtly visible in direct sunlight, but it looks like a very luminous blush rather than a shimmery product when worn. To be honest I was going to return it after the swatching and trying-to-get-color-on-my-brush disaster, but I changed my mind when I realized how good it looked on.

The wear time is excellent, which is very, very rare for me as blushes tend to disappear from my cheeks within a few hours. Just like it won't budge from the compact unless you take extraordinary measures, it won't budge from my skin all day long. Overall: Ripe Peach is a beautiful yet frustrating blush. Don't bother buying unless you like light makeup, are a limited edition product collector or are willing to work with the granite-hard texture. When I pay $32 for a blush, I expect it to be easy to work with, and I'm not really amused by MAC's inability to calibrate their powder compacting machines here. Or whatever happened... Where to buy? The Toledo collection is available in MAC stores, maccosmetics.com and partner retailers like macys.com , nordstrom.com The product featured in this review was purchased by Lulle. I received no compensation to write this post, which only reflects my personal opinion. This post contains affiliate links.

Bonjour!

Lulle, 30-something, I was born and lived most of my life in France. I also spent 5 years in Istanbul, Turkey, and now reside in San Diego, California. I have a cat, Ernesto, a little rascal who traveled with me from one country to another.

Hang out here to discover the best of French beauty brands, latest trends, and reviews of both high end and drugstore cosmetics.